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So far the largest fantasy/sci-fi event of this kind in Slovenia, with 1000+ visitors (more than twice as much as last year), was this year held in a much larger sports hall with side rooms where all lectures and open discussions took place.

Event hall from above.

There was also a lot of interesting thing going on at the stalls. Many different memorabilia to spend your money on, talking to a local fantasy and sci-fi clubs and societies, seeing new or ongoing projects related to the topics of an event.

For the first time there were also Magic: the Gathering competition and a Hearthstone competition.

Hearthstone players.

And for the end, the best part of events like this – Cosplay. Quality and quantity of the people cosplaying is steadily rising with each passing year. There was a large variety of characters taken from comics, mangas, films, TV shows and even from the latest pc games.

Thor, the goddess of thunder + two unknown characters.S.T.A.L.K.E.R.DeadpoolCompetiton for the best cosplay in various categories.

This was the second (first last year) Slovenian fantasy and science fiction convention held in Ljubljana. Visit was better than last year, around 500 people have attended the convention throughout the day.
One of two convention halls.

Probably the main event of the convention was cosplay masquerade and selection for the best mask. We could see people dressed in masks from different worlds. From characters from the movies and anime to the characters from the pc games and board games. This year the total number of cosplayers has doubled in comparison to last year. Unfortunately there was no slave Leila .

Group photo of all the cosplayers.Board games shop.

Different science fiction, board game, roleplaying related societies and shops presented their activities. There were sections dedicated to playing Magic the Gathering, board games, building foam weapons, drawing a fantasy characters or just for hanging out.

Section of the hall intended for playing board games.

In Slovenia, number of LARP players is slowly raising. They had their own booth where they were showing weapons that are used in battles and were trying to find new players to join the game.

This year I decided to visit one of the biggest Comic Cons in Europe, the London Film and Comic Con. Purpose of the visit was not to gather signatures and the photos of movie/comic stars, but the see and experience the event.Tickets have arrived. Luggage packed. Ready to go.
On preview night in Friday there was entrance queue, halls were calm and you could visited the stalls in peace. Saturday was just the opposite. When I arrived (around 9:30) the queues for both the Early Birds and no tickets were wrapped twice around the exhibition hall. Fortunately I found one that moved were quickly and was inside in less than half an hour. Some with no prepaid tickets were not so lucky and had to wait 5 or more hours just to buy the ticket.Crowd waiting for entrance to the main event hall in Earls Court 2.

Main hall in Saturday was packed.
In front of the Brompton Hall there were four different Transformer cars (two Bumblebees, Optimus Prime and Barricade) on diplay.Bumblebee and Optimus Prime in front of the event hall.
Cosplayers were every where. Inside and outside the hall and always happy to pose for the pictures.X-Men group photo.

Cosplay masquerade.
I visited some of the free talks given by the Star Trek, Star Wars and LoTR cast members. Philip talked about his role of many Orcs, the process of getting in and out of the costume. David (Faramir) described how all the scenes in extended version of the movies were shoot after all the movies were already done and shown in cinema.LoTR talk with David Wenham and Philip Grieve.
In addition to the Transformer cars, two replicas of Batmobils were on display in Brompton Hall. First from the movie released in 1966, the second (with very dusty surface) from the 1989 movie. Way more photos can be seen in gallery.Batmobile replica from 1966 Batman movie.
Overall I was pleased with the event (various guests, cosplayers, stalls, free talks, cars on display …), but there were many bad things (overcrowding, bad sound system at super stage, strange queue systems for photo shuts, raffle and programme …) that should be corrected for the next events.

On Saturday 28. new Slovenian science fiction convention was held in Ljubljana for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised over the participation, as there was, most of the time, present at least 100 people.
Convention hall.

Different science fiction, board game, roleplaying related societies presented their activities. There were a sections dedicated to playing Magic the Gathering, Warhammer and painting Warhammer figures. Of course, event like this needs cosplaying performance. Award for the best costume was won by the Witch King (LotR – Lord of the Nazgul), followed by Morgana (LoL champion) costume with moving wings. As befits sci-fi event we even saw Princess Leila slave costume.

Witch King versus Demon Huntress, playing Warhammer.Magic section.

During the convention, there were lectures with various topics. Artistic society presented the process of making their Witch King costume. From ideas and design to their actual implementation. There was a discussion about problems of translating personal names in books and maintaining their relevance to the content.

While walking around Belgrade last week I accidentally saw a poster for the Star Wars fan convention. This is their second one, the first was held last year in June. There was no entrance fee and as the saga fan I had to attend it. While my short visit there few people were in customs, but what surprised me the most was the room full of people listening to the lecture about the audio effects in SW. There were also other lectures like cgi, special effects… I went around booths and they were showing some hand made stuff, books, legos, recreations of the movie scenes, other memorabilia.